By Joshua Frank, BrickBurner.org, 8/22/06
The Power of Corruption
Ned Lamont’s win over
Senator Joe Lieberman in Connecticut’s Democratic primary two weeks ago
has been hailed by many as a victory for the movement against the war
in Iraq. Lamont has been an ardent critic of the Bush administration’s
handling of the war and has stated that “our best hope for success …
is to take the very American military face off of this occupation and
… start bringing our troops home.”
Lamont, however, is still facing an uphill battle for the US Senate.
Sen. Lieberman has declared an independent candidacy and is leading in
the polls by 5%. But even if Lamont is attempting to rock the boat on
Iraq, he is still in full defense of Israel and the country’s bloody
three-week bombardment of Lebanon.
The Democratic Party doesn’t allow dissent, and like the Republican
Party, they are even willing to stifle democracy in order to ensure
their ascendancy on Election Day. Here in New York the Democratic
Party has willfully ignored Jonathan Tasini’s popular antiwar campaign
against Hillary Clinton. Tasini, unlike Lamont, is critical of the
close relationship between the US and the state of Israel.
“In a sense, I understand why my opponent has to try to silence the
truth. She, and a broad segment of our political leadership, bear
responsibility for the deaths of these (Qana) children,” Tasini
recently wrote. “They gave cover for what many rank-and-file Israeli
citizens (and some Israeli politicians) are now calling a moral and
military debacle.”
On August 21, the New York Times called on Hillary Clinton to debate
Tasini, writing, “Since Mr. Tasini is running an antiwar campaign, it
would be very useful for New Yorkers to have a chance to hear the two
Democratic candidates debate that one issue.” Hillary, of course, isn’t
likely to take heed, and truthfully, that’s undemocratic. But that
seems to be the Democratic strategy of late.
Perhaps the debacle in New York is not quite as egregious as the
Democrats” move to stifle opposition in Pennsylvania, where antiwar
Green Party candidates have been forced to withdraw their names from
the state ballot because they cannot afford the costly legal fees
needed to challenge the Democrats” snooty lawyers. The Democrats claim
the Green Party used “fake names, names of unregistered voters and
illegible signatures” to get on this year’s ballot. But really, the
Democrats just didn’t want any challenges to their support for the war
in Iraq or the US’s unconditional support for Israel.
You may remember that the Democrats used similar tactics to keep
Ralph Nader’s antiwar campaign off the ballot in swing-states just two
years ago. They hired legal teams (several of them Republican firms) to
challenge his petitions across the country. They didn’t want Nader’s
antiwar voice to be heard by voters. And this is the party that was
supposed to stand up against alleged voting fraud in Ohio and Florida?
Give me a break. The Democrats, like the Republicans, detest the
democratic process. They have done a superb job of discounting genuine
antiwar candidates across the political spectrum, especially those who
oppose Israeli incursions in Palestine and Lebanon.
While the mainstream antiwar movement was celebrating Lamont’s
conquest over Lieberman, Democratic Rep. Cynthia McKinney’s (who has
been openly critical of Israel) campaign took a bullet in Georgia.
Where were the MoveOn.org and the DailyKos mobs then? Certainly not
demanding that their members donate money to her antiwar campaign. Was
it because she doesn’t think that US taxpayers should be supporting
American and Israeli military aggression in the Middle East? Is that
why they are all ignoring Jonathan Tasini and others?
Absolutely.